Perfect your pitch

Unlock opportunities

If your goal is to grow your business, it’s a good idea to be comfortable describing your brand and outlining your potential (in front of an audience). This is known as “pitching”. A pitch is a verbal proposal of your business plan or idea for a project that could consist of:

an introduction to your brand.

a summary of your proposal or plan.

a value proposition or why you think this idea is worth investing resources in.

a call-to-action that describes what outcome you are looking for.

The ultimate goal of a pitch is for the listener to do something -- whether it’s give you more time, invest in your idea, connect you with a potential partner, or some other action to move your idea forward.

Pitching is a tool that can open up opportunities like: collaborations (pitching to peers), business ventures (pitching to investors and business partners), and engagement with your audience (pitching to viewers, crowdfunding efforts).

Tips

Know your audience

Before writing a pitch, it’s crucial to know your audience. Think about what questions they might have and what outcome you’re looking for. What do you want them to think, feel, or do? If you are pitching a brand, does your concept fit with their values (and yours?) If you're pitching an investor, does your concept fill a void in the market? These questions can help you define your value proposition and anticipate what you might get asked.

It's a good idea to research the people you'll be pitching to so you can adjust or plan out your message. When pitching to a brand, consider asking the brand for a creative brief. A creative brief might indicate the do’s and don’ts of representing the brand. If you cannot get a creative brief before your pitch, ask your brand contact for the goal of the project and brand guidelines. Make sure you know how the brand defines success.

Tips

Create a budget for all the roles you’re playing

Once you have a target audience in mind, it’s also helpful to estimate the cost of the project, either what you’d charge a brand to complete it or amount of investment required. Try to account for all potential expenses and develop a budget for the services you’re providing.

Remember, you may be one person doing 5 different jobs -- like editing, acting, and script writing -- so keep this in mind when setting your price. Also, it could be helpful to include a set amount of money for incidentals or hidden costs you don’t foresee. Or, you might consider highlighting the things you will do that are of added value, but don’t cost anything, like cutting a short trailer or highlight reel from the final project.

Tips

Structure your key points

Once you understand your audience and reviewed your costs, design your pitch in a way that considers these factors. Sometimes it's appropriate to propose several options for the partnership and how you could expand upon it in the future.

There are many ways to structure a pitch, one framework you can use is:

Introduction - explain who you are, provide a short summary, establish common ground or how you relate to them, and grab their attention. Consider including statistics and accomplishments. Try to communicate passion for your brand and the idea.

Status - what is the status of the project? For example, have you started developing the creative content already?

The ask or call-to-action - what you are looking for right now (e.g., collaborator, money, resources)?

Remember, this is just a suggested flow -- it's key to develop a pitch that feels good for you and is as authentic as possible. If you're pitching to brands, it could be helpful to include details on your creative vision, the look and feel of how you’ll present the brand, how the audience might react and how large of an audience you could realistically reach.

Practice and timing

Sometimes pitching can be a challenge, but if you try to maintain a good attitude and accept that your pitch might never be “perfect,” you’ll give yourself a huge advantage. Here are a few suggestions from the pros that can help you get more comfortable with the process:

Respect your audience and approach them like they are awesome and intelligent. The way you come across to your audience as you pitch is almost as important as the words coming out of your mouth.

Don’t take rejection personally. Remember that not every pitch is right for every audience, and the more you hear “no,” the more comfortable you’ll likely get asking.

Ask for feedback to improve your pitch.

Share your ideas with others and try practicing in front of an audience. This could result in effective suggestions and advice.

It’s important to remember that your pitch will evolve. Determine what is essential -- your idea, the audience, the unique value proposition, and the required action or next steps required to make it a reality.